Earls Croome Worcestershire Littleburys Directory 1879

Earl’s Croome, so called from the connection of the Beauchamps with the parish, was previously known as Croome Simon, after the name of the possessor, temp. Henry II. It is a village and parish situate near the Severn, 1 mile N.E. of Upton, and 9 S. of Worcester; is in the western division of the county, Lower Oswaldslow hundred, Upton union and polling district, Pershore county court district and petty sessional division. The area of the parish is 1,141 acres; annual rateable value, £2,500; population in 1861, 189; in 1871, 194, with 47 inhabited houses and 49 families or separate occupiers. The Rev. Charles Amphlett (the lord of the manor) and the Earl of Coventry are the principal landowners. The country is flat; soil, cold clay and moist; chief crops, wheat, barley, and beans. Earl’s Croome is in the diocese and archdeaconry of Worcester and rural deanery of Bredon; living, a rectory; annual value, £235, with residence and 7 acres of glebe; patron, Rev. Charles Amphlett, M.A.; rector, Rev. George Alexander Augustus Coates, M.A., S.C.L., Queen’s College, Oxford, who was instituted in 1873. The church of St. Nicholas consists of chancel, nave, and tower with five bells, and exhibits Norman masonry in its chancel-arch, doorways, and other portions, with an elegant Decorated window on the north side. The chancel is laid with encaustic tiles; a new vestry was added in 1877; also a painted window to the memory of George De Windt, Esq., the gift of his widow. The earliest register is dated 1659. A school was erected in 1855 for the accommodation of this parish and Hill Croome, and is supported by a voluntary rate. Earl’s Croome Court is the occasional residence of John Henry Empson, Esq., of Yorkfleet hall, Yorkshire.

POSTAL REGULATIONS. – Letters arrive from Worcester (via Severn Stoke) at 7.10 a.m. The wall letter-box is cleared at 5.10 p.m. There is no delivery on Sundays. Upton-on-Severn is the nearest money-order and telegraph office. Post town, Worcester.